Glimpses on Lab-Grown Meat

Demand for meat is increasing and the supply of animals like cows, pigs, chickens used for meat, diminishing due to issues of commercial production of them. Commercial livestock production is becoming unviable on a global scale in terms of animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and human health. Options for artificial meat are being explored using techniques like stem cells, satellite cells or myoblasts, Embryonic Stem Cells, Induced pluripotent stem cells, Totipotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cells, etc. In this method, animal tissue is grown in a controlled environment using cell culture technology. There are attempts made to develop different types of media and techniques like Self-organizing techniques and Scaffold-based techniques to grow the cell further. Cultured meat is also called ‘clean meat’, ‘in-vitro meat’, ‘artificial meat’, or even ‘alt-meat’. The concept is in the infant stage of commercialization hence along with the technical aspect there is a lot of work is being done in the environmental, commercial, social, economic, and ethical aspects of the concept. The real benefits and cost as compared to current methods of meat production are still to be explored.